


Life Signs, Part 1: "Caution: Falling Rocks"

by 852_Prospect_Archivist



Category: The Sentinel
Genre: Drama/Romance, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-05-10
Updated: 2013-05-10
Packaged: 2017-12-11 05:44:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,350
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/794536
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/852_Prospect_Archivist/pseuds/852_Prospect_Archivist
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>While camping, Blair and Jim tentatively admit their feelings for one another. Part one of the Life Signs Series.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Life Signs, Part 1: "Caution: Falling Rocks"

Wow!! You guys were all so great about feedback on "Thoughts" and "More Thoughts" I just *had* to reward it. (I hope you think it's a reward and not some terrible punishment.) I wasn't going to send this out yet, but this way I'll be forced to write the rest. Disclaimer: (Standard, all-purpose disclaimer) All pre-existing characters are the property of the creators and producers of "The Sentinel." No copyright infringement is intended. All new characters and situations are the sole property and responsibility of the author. Rating: Part one is rated G but by the end (which I predict will be at least another 3 or 4 parts, my most ambitious story ever) I'll guarantee an NC-17 rating for explicit m/m sex so if you're not into it, don't start. 

## Life Signs

by Regina Harley  


Friday afternoon, Jim and Blair arrived at the loft after a hellish week. 

"Ahh, thank all the Gods the weekend is here. You still up for that camping trip tomorrow?" 

"Sure, Chief. I've been looking forward to it all week. Why?" 

"I don't know. You looked kinda like you had a lot on your mind." 

"Well, I do. That Ramirez case is getting me down." Jim grimaced. "Imagine a 12 year old setting fire to his own home and causing his grandmother to suffer third degree burns over 60 percent of her body." 

"Yeah, that's a downer, all right. Still, getting out in the fresh air and nature will do you some good. I'll even promise, no tests this weekend." 

"You're on!" 

"Let's get some supper and hit the hay, then. We should get off by 4 to reach the campsite by 10. That means getting up *early*." 

Jim mumbled something that Blair didn't catch. 

"What's that, Big Guy?" 

"Nothing. Just thinking. So ... what do you want for supper?" 

The next morning was a fine October day. The forecast promised it would be sunny, for once, and not too cold. By now, they had the truck loading down to a science and were on the road on schedule. The trip to their favourite site was quiet. Jim seemed lost in thought and Blair was loath to disturb him. Instead he took the opportunity to study his partner, his Sentinel. Sometimes it was so hard to figure out what made him tick. Although he joked about Jim having no sense of humor (I heard that, shorty), he knew that it was just part of the big man's charm to pretend that he was a humourless soldier, a big tough guy cop, when underneath beat the heart of a true romantic and a truly kind and gentle man. But lately it seemed that something was bothering him. He would catch Jim looking at him like he was trying to figure out some mystery of the universe and not having much luck at it. 

They arrived at the park at 10, paid their fee, and were soon set up. 

"Boy, Jim, you were right about this two-man tent. Much better than those old one-man tents." 

"Yeah, I thought it would be about the same amount of effort, and a lot more comfortable. So, you ready to catch some lunch!!" he finished, making a casting motion. 

"You bet! Winner has to do all the cleaning." 

"You're on, Chief." 

"And no cheating using your sight!" 

"Okay, okay," Jim grumbled. 

Moving slightly downstream, Blair cast off. After a few minutes he glanced back to see how Jim was doing. He was standing there with his eyes closed, Blair noted with satisfaction. 'Good. He's obeying the rules. Hey, wait a minute. He's using his *hearing*. Hmmm, let's just see about that.' 

"Hey, Jim!!", he yelled in his loudest voice. 

Jim flinched. 

"Shhh," he replied, "Do you want to scare all the fish?!" 

"No, I just wanted to see if you were cheating." 

"Cheating!?" 

"I wasn't *that* loud. In fact, only someone unfairly using his Sentinel hearing to catch fish would be bothered by it," Blair came back with a grin. 

"I wasn't!!" he replied with a guilty look on his face. 

"Yeah, tell it to the judge!" 

Blair waited a few minutes for his next move. He could see that Jim had gone back to using his hearing. 'Well, that really wasn't part of the deal. I guess he's not *really* cheating. But then *I* get to do something less than ethical.' He grinned to himself. He waited until Jim was leaning over the stream, balanced precariously on the edge of the bank and then he whispered in his lowest voice, "God, he's so hot. Just look at that ass!!" Jim spun around in shock and as he lost his footing and went plunging into the ice-cold stream. Just as he went under he heard Blair whisper, "Serves you right, Big Guy," followed by his little laugh. 

He came up sputtering and swearing. 

"That was a dirty trick!!" 

"No more than you deserved. And you know it." 

"Come on, help me out." 

"Oh *no*. I know what you're up to. You just want to pull me in there with you. I'm not falling for that old trick." 

"No, *really*. This bank is too steep and slippery for me to get up." 

Blair gave him a sceptical look. But as Jim continued to struggle getting up the bank, and began shivering the look changed to one of concern. 'It *is* pretty cold out.' he thought to himself. He let Jim try one more time only to fall back in the icy water, before going over and reaching out a hand. 

"Okay, okay. Here, grab my hand." 

He just had time to see the evil look on Jim's face before he found himself pulled face first into the water. 

"You should have listened to yourself, Chief," said Jim as he easily scrambled out onto the bank. "You think a little thing like a slippery slope is going to stop me. I'm disappointed in you." He gave his beautiful grin. "Well," he said briskly, rubbing his hands together, "it looks like beans and franks for lunch, hey, Chief?" 

With that, he left Blair lying in the stream muttering to himself, "Man, this is just *so* unfair." 

By the time Blair had gotten himself out of the stream, gathered his equipment, and made it back to the camp site, Jim had already changed and gotten a fire started. 

"Geez, Blair, your lips are blue. Come on, get into something dry and I'll have some coffee made in a minute." 

* * *

"That really was a nasty trick you pulled, Ellison," Blair said admiringly coming out of the tent towelling off his hair. 

"Well, you deserved it! What was that crack about my ass?! What??" 

Blair was on the ground howling with laughter. "Crack ... hahaha ... ass ... heeheehee!! I can't believe you said that," he finally gasped. 

"All right, all right, funny guy. Just for that, you can make lunch." 

After lunch, they decided to take advantage of the weather and go for a hike. 

"I want to try that new path we found the last time we were here." 

"What ever you say, Chief." 

This proved to be a mistake. The path turned out to be a dead end, ending at a break in the cliff, and continuing on a few feet further away. Jim insisted that they could make it to the continuation of the path but Blair was dubious. 

"I don't think that's such a good idea, Jim." 

"Oh come on, Sandburg. Don't wimp out on me now." 

"You know how I feel about heights, Jim. No. No, I don't want to do this," he replied decisively and turned around to go back but he gotten a little too close to the edge. 

Jim could see his mistake as the edge started crumbling. 

"Blair!! Look out!!" "Oh, shit!!," he yelled, as he slipped off the edge of the cliff. 

Jim took a diving leap but missed Blair's hand as Blair scrabbled frantically for a handhold. Pulling himself forward, dreading the site sure to meet his eyes, Jim looked over the edge. To his surprise, there was Blair, his head a dozen feet below the edge of the precipice, desperately clinging to scrub and rocks. 

"Jim! Help me!!" 

"Blair, hold still a second. Let me see if I can't find you a better foothold." Jim concentrated on the crumbling slope. "Move your left foot over about eight inches to the left. The place you're on has a big crack running through it and I can see it getting bigger. The other place is smaller, but solid." 

"Okay, Jim. Whatever you say. Just get me out of here." 

Continuing to find new hand and footholds, Jim managed to coach him almost all the way up the steep slope. 

"I'm afraid that's it, Chief. The ground gets too crumbly from there on up. Now, you'll have to reach up and grab my hand." he said leaning over in seeming defiance of gravity. 

"But I'll pull you over." "Grab my hand, damn it!!" 

Blair swung up and missed. "Shit!" 

"Try again!" 

"Jim, if I do we'll both go down," Blair said anxiously, desperately looking around for alternatives. 

"Blair," Jim said in a totally calm determined voice, "do you trust me? Hmmm? *Really* trust me not to ever let you come to harm? Do you believe all that Blessed Protector stuff you're always spouting or not?" 

The calm voice seemed to break Blair out of his frantic inspection of the situation. He looked up at Jim. Straight into his blue, blue eyes. Something there seemed to answer a deeply important question because suddenly he closed his eyes, took a deep breath, released it in a long slow breath and became totally relaxed. 

"Of course, Jim," he replied in a matter-of-fact tone, "Let's try it once more." 

They shared another look for a long moment, and some profound understanding passed between them. 'Not now' it seemed to say 'but soon'. 

The moment passed, and with a cry of "One, two three, now!" Blair flung his hand up where it was caught by Jim. Doing a one armed pull-up, muscles bulging, he pulled Blair up as far as he could. 

"Now reach up and grab my belt." 

By stretching as far as he could, Blair managed to get a hold of Jim's thick leather belt. Scrambling, he climbed over Jim's shoulder and then few more moments of manoeuvring and he was stretched out on the edge of the cliff. Once there, he could see one of Jim's legs wrapped around a small tree that was growing right on the edge. But, to his horror, the tree was starting to give up its tenuous hold on the rocky ledge. He quickly got to his knees and grabbed Jim by the belt again. With a monumental effort from both of them they managed to slide Jim back enough to get him entirely on the cliff, just as the tree ripped free, and went crashing down the slope, then Blair collapsed next to him. They both lay there panting from the effort a few moments before Blair reached a hand out for Jim's shoulder. 

"Thanks, man." 

Jim reached up and put his hand over Blair's and met his eyes. 

"You're welcome." 

The moment stretched. Finally, with a shrug and a slight blush, Blair broke the gaze and declared, "Well, we should get going." 

"Whatever you say, Chief."

* * *

That night as they sat by the fire, Jim finally broke the silence. 

"Now's the time, Chief." 

Blair didn't pretend not to understand, but gave a sigh and a nod of agreement. 

"So what are we going to do about this, Jim?" 

"Well, first we should figure out just exactly what 'this' is." 

"I think it's pretty obvious. We, two previously entirely heterosexual males, are deeply attracted to and may have even fallen in love with each other. Is ... is that your take on it?" Blair asked hesitantly. 

"Yeah, I guess so," replied Jim, much to Blair's relief, staring into the fire pensively. "Kind of like a shot out of the blue." 

"Phew, I'm *really* glad you agree. But not so much out of the blue. I think this has been coming for a long time. Didn't you ever wonder why you let me move in with you? And why you've let me stay so long? I know I have. I think in the back of my mind I was hoping it was because of something like this." 

"Well, I *told* myself that it was because this way you would be there if something went wrong with my senses. I guess I was just fooling myself." 

"Don't take it so hard, big guy. Humans have an infinite ability at self-deception. You'd be amazed at the lengths people go to to justify what they think is 'normal'." 

"Yeah, I suppose." 

"Well, now that we have *that* settled the big question is, where do we go from here?" 

"Do we necessarily have to go anywhere?" 

"No. We could just go on like we have been. Good friends but seeing other people, other *women*. I'm just glad you're willing to talk about this." 

"Why wouldn't I? It's both our problem." 

"I'm glad you think so. For awhile, I was afraid it was all on my end. And it was starting to bug me." 

"What do you mean?" 

"I mean, come on, look at you, man. Sitting there like a Greek statue, anatomically correct. Enough to make even a *man* drool. Plus you smell good." Blair grinned to himself, watching the red blush creep over Jim's face and get deeper and deeper. "But straight enough to be the ruler for a Roman road." 

"A Roman road??" 

"Yeah, the Roman's built all these roads all around Europe and they were all completely straight. They moved heaven and, literally, earth to keep them entirely straight and completely level. There's still bits of them left all around Europe. That's you, straight and completely on the level." 

"Well, what about you. With those eyes and those lips and that hair, looking like a wood sprite, all wild and untamed. But I have never seen you even *look* at another man with anything but professional interest. But you look at women as if they're a banquet and you haven't eaten for three days." 

"Geez, Jim. I never knew you had the heart of a poet. Do you really think I look like a dryad?" 

"Wait a minute, Sandburg. What do you mean I *smell* good?!" exclaimed Jim, just catching on. 

"Smell is a very important component of attraction, Jim. Studies have proven that no matter how good a person looks, if you don't like the way they smell, you won't be attracted. Even for people without Sentinel abilities," he finished with a grin. 

"Hmm. I guess I never thought about it but most peoples' smell bothers me. Too much perfume, deodorant, shampoo fragrance ... the list goes on. But you just smell clean. Like the woods, like nature. Come to think of it, I even like the smell of your sweat. That's weird!" 

"Not so weird. Sweat is loaded with pheromones. And again, either you like it or you don't." 

"The point *is*," Jim tried to keep on the subject, "what now?" 

"The way I see it we have a few options." Blair swung into professorial mode, ticking off the points on his fingers. "We could ignore it. Just go on as before. The problem with this, is that it will probably cause tensions due to unresolved urges. This could be damaging to our relationship, both professional and personal, in the long run." 

"Yeah, that makes sense." 

"Second, we could initiate a physical relationship but not make an exclusive commitment. This could be very physically satisfying, but the lack of emotional bonding could be equally damaging. On the other hand, if we do make the commitment and it doesn't work that could be really bad too." 

"That's true." 

"The final choice, is we go all the way. Make a complete physical and emotional commitment to each other. This would probably be very satisfying but, beyond the danger of it failing, it would entail the mental shift of considering ourselves gay. Would you be able to handle something like that?" 

"Well, Chief. Believe it or not, I'm not exactly the straight arrow you think I am. I've never been in a relationship or anything like that, but I try to take people at their face value, whether that means their skills or their appearance or their ... um... general ability to attract. I can appreciate an aesthetic form whether it's male or female. I've just never been tempted emotionally before." 

"Huh! I never would have guessed that. But it does make life easier as far as we're concerned. So you think I'm aesthetically pleasing, do you?" he finished with a grin. 

"Sure do, Chief. Now what about you? Could *you* make that mental shift?" 

"I'm not too worried about that. I have had a tiny bit of experience, and one thing you learn from studying other cultures is that there isn't *anything* that's not considered 'normal' one place or another. It's more the commitment aspect that worries me. To be completely honest, I'm not so great at it." 

"I was wondering about that. But you have to ask yourself if all those women were just a smokescreen for hiding your true feeling from yourself." 

"I don't know. I'll have to do some soul searching on that one. In fact, I think we should table this whole discussion for a while to let ourselves consider all the options. Why don't we agree to talk about it again next weekend? We still don't necessarily have to decide anything then, but maybe by then things will be clearer in our heads." 

"Good idea. Well, I'm beat. I think it's time for bed. You coming?" 

"I'll be along in a minute. I'll take care of the fire. You go on." 

"All right. Good night, Chief." 

"Night, Jim."

* * *

Jim woke with a start. Casting about for the cause of his disturbance, he realised it was just an animal, a moose from the sound of it, crossing the stream. Fortunately it was moving away from them, so he relaxed. He instinctively checked Blair's heartbeat, but found it the calm rhythm of someone asleep. He took the opportunity to study his partner. He hadn't been joking about Blair's appearance. He made Jim think of the woods and elves and magic. 

He thought back on the day, unable to believe all that had occurred. Falling in the river, saving Blair's life, and then the extraordinary discovery that he was in love with his partner. Unable to resist he reached out and stroked a single finger down his partner's tousled curls. When Blair shifted, he pulled back quickly. Again listening to the comforting rhythm of his heartbeat, he thought back to the day Blair had learned that he could tell the difference between Blair's heartbeat and everyone else's. He had been so animated! As much as Jim grumped and groused, he loved it when Blair got the bit between his teeth about some new Sentinel thing. His eyes had sparkled, and he'd smiled that beautiful smile. 

"That's incredible, Jim!" he'd enthused. "Let's see how many different people you can identify." He'd then proceeded to encourage Jim into memorising the rhythms of most of the people in the Major Crimes unit. "After all, Jim, you never know when you'll need to be able to tell the good guys from the bad guys. Plus, you can keep an ear out for Taggert for me. That man has *got* to be more careful of what he puts in his body." 

He lay back down with a sigh. Life had definitely just gotten a *lot* more complicated ... and he wouldn't have it any other way. With that thought in his head and a grin on his face, he slipped back into sleep. 

* * *

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